


satogou week (dec, 2020)

by HimeBeat



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: AU, Drabble Collection, Fluff, I had a lot of fun writing these, M/M, Satogouweek, canonverse, get a fix of these little dummies being adorable, hope you'll enjoy reading them as well, it's free serotonin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:00:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27811918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HimeBeat/pseuds/HimeBeat
Summary: seven days. seven short stories about two boys in love.
Relationships: Gou | Goh/Satoshi | Ash Ketchum
Comments: 10
Kudos: 84
Collections: Firstfriend/Journeyshipping





	1. Day 1: Synergy / “In life, it’s not where you go, it’s who you travel with.” — Charles Schulz

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! thank you so much for tuning in! these are short and sweet and I sincerely hope you enjoy them.

Sometimes the nights are short. Feel short, at least.

They set camp in a clearing, near a water stream, make a fire, and heat up canned soups, ( _Mushrooms or chili?, mushrooms, please)._

There’s starred nights and, if they’ve got some energy left, they spend a while looking up at the sky and talking about the Pokémon species that live up there, cuddled under the same old blanket Goh has had since he was a child, ( _I want to capture Deoxys, of course you do)._

There’s only one tent, sleeping bags next to each other’s. Goh’s water bottle to his side (right), Ash’s book of the week on his (left), ( _Introduction to aerial battles?, Hmm, there’s a championship coming up)._

There’s laughter, and half-asleep kisses that land an inch south or north of their target. If they are not too tired, sometimes they make love, breathing the same air, pouring pleasure into one another until they’re sated, quiet in the dead of the night, but reading into the silence perfectly, ( _kiss me here, hold me there, harder, gentler, more)._

It’s many years of this. Over a decade on the road by each other’s side. It’s knowing that Ash misplaces his stuff easily, and that Goh is prone to headaches if he hasn’t had coffee by nine am. It’s amused blue-eyes at a corny joke, and brown orbs filled with adoration every time it’s one of _his_ shirts on his partner’s smaller frame, ( _there’s a coffee house in the next town over. Shut up, I was out of white shirts…)_

It’s knowing when to give the other space, when to have hard conversations. It’s realizing different dreams, and finding a way to do so together. It’s growing stronger, wiser, kinder, so that, one day, you might be as bright and worthy as they deem you. ( _Congratulations, champion. Thank you, Professor)._

It’s a different town every other week, mysteries to solve, new dreams to chase. It’s the faint glint on their fourth-finger when the sunlight hits. It’s the miles that stretch ahead of them, winding and filled with possibilities. ( _Here, I found your left-glove, ready to go?)._

It’s the purest, safest thing they’ve ever known. And the long-days, the short-nights, are all the more meaningful, when they are by each other’s side.


	2. Day 2: Trust / “Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone's hand is the beginning of a journey. At other times, it is allowing another to take yours.” ― Vera Nazarian

“They’re waiting for you out there.” They both know this. There’s no reason for Goh to state the obvious.

Then again, there’s no reason for Ash to be hiding in the dressing room, when a stadium full of people has come to see him.

“I can’t do this.” He confesses, small and vulnerable. And Goh has to do a double take because there’s _no way_ those words have just come out of his friend’s mouth.

“I don’t know anyone else who can,” He replies. It’s not meant to be encouraging. It’s just a fact.

Goh works with facts and numbers all day, he understands probabilities, and why some events are more likely than others. He’s a rational, data-driven man.

He’s run all the numbers for today and, with Ash’s experience, his current roaster, and the way he’s prepared for this moment for the last _ten years,_ all the calculations say he’s got an eighty percent chance of winning the battle today.

Goh is a rational, data-driven man, and today, he has decided probability can take a holiday, because he is one-hundred-percent sure Ash will win the match.

He knows it, because he knows the man sitting with his head buried in his bent knees in front of him better than he knows himself.

He knows it, because he’s put his life on the line for this man before, without a moment’s hesitation. That’s how much faith he has in him. That’s how much he trusts him.

“Come on. I didn’t come all the way here to watch you give up.” Is what he says, “And neither did you.” He adds.

“Goh - ”

“You are going to win.” He promises. The numbers - and his heart - say so, and there’s nothing but calm confidence in his voice when he says the words to his anxious friend. “You’ll win today.” He repeats. “Now, come on.”

There’s a hand stretched in front of Ash’s kneeling body. Tan and steady.

Ash has held that same hand many times. Sometimes to get out of trouble, sometimes to jump straight into it. It’s a comforting constant in his life. It’s the hand of a friend that hasn’t left his side. Not even when things have been at their hardest.

It’s the hand of the one person in the world he trusts unconditionally. The person who would never lie to him.

And if he says Ash will win today, then he will will today.

He reaches out, hands clasping, sealing a promise as blue-eyes meet brown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> their friendship is goals - ilovethemsomuch?!?🥺 💞


	3. Day 3: Destiny / “(S)he who controls the present controls the past, and (S)he who controls the past controls the future" - George Orwell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can tell I had a lot of fun with this one, because it makes absolutely no sense.

As far as humans go, Chloe has seen many of them. _All of them._ Literally.

When Arceus created her, and asked her to help write a story for humans, she’d thought it’d meant the ones that lived at the time. She wasn’t told they would multiply, and populate the Earth alongside with Pokémon.

She wasn’t told they’d take upon her gifts of art and science - and fire, they really liked fire - with such devotion, and create societies and language around them.

It was more than she’d signed up for, but she quickly found she didn’t mind. She _liked_ the fragile little things. She liked that they’d learned kindness and intention. And she liked the foods they’ve invented. A lot.

Millenia later, it’s fair to say she’s grown into her role. Arceus pops up every now and again, but mostly he stays on his realm of the universe. She’d stayed there, too, the first few centuries or so, but her job demands more hands-on efforts, and, unfortunately, one can’t find decent cinnamon-rolls in the dark dimension. So she stays on Earth most of the time, acquires a human form, and enjoys all the wonders this quirky little world has to offer.

She makes friends, too. Even when she knows they’ll say goodbye eventually, and most of them won’t get to see the wonders that have yet to happen in the future. The wonders she takes the time to craft and design so humanity’s story can continue.

Eternity can be lonely, she’s learned. So she makes friends to pass the time and tries not to dwell too hard on the ones that are no longer with her. She understands the inner-workings of this balance, she helped create them, too. And the sorrow she feels is temporary when met with the joy these people brought her, she chooses to focus on that instead.

A trick to this longing is making friends when you are but a child. She gives herself a younger vessel every now and again, and finds a person to spend as much time as she can with, for as long as they have. She leads as normal a life as she can - since she’s the one writing the stories, this is usually an easy task - and she lands her human character with new twists every time. Stellar performances, if she does say so herself.

It’s green eyes and purple-brown hair, this time. A bit of an impatient personality - though, don’t tell anyone, but that’s just her all the time - and more compassion than she’d normally give to any other person.

She meets a young boy with dark skin and blue-eyes when she is four, and promptly decides he will be her best friend. The person she will spend forever with, until forever is over for him.

It starts well, Goh has a confidence to himself that Chloe admires on humans, and he’s got the type of smarts that usually make it very far in life.

“My future lays in my hands!” Chants Goh all the time. And Chloe makes a habit of holding his hand. When going to the store, to-and-from class, when walking around the forest taking pictures of Pokémon with their plastic cameras. Chloe holds his hand and thinks that Goh, too, has chosen her back, for his words have a literal meaning.

Chloe likes him and, proud of her particular choice this generation around, she begins to plot plans and sketches of what their life together will look like.

Which is why it comes as a surprise when, a few human years later, she finds the pages of those books blank.

There’s only one being in the universe who can temper with her books of Fate. Distraught, she makes the journey across dimensions to face them.

“But I’ve chosen him!” She demands, “I’m the one who decides!”

Arceus, infinite in patience but fed up with his temperamental child, explains, “I have created another boy, who is meant to lead great quests on Earth. Him and this boy you mention are now companions.”

“But Goh is mine!” She refutes, unreasonable. “It’s not supposed to be like this!” She would know. She calls the shots on what _is_ supposed to be.

Her father sighs, “I believed you would approve. Was it not you who re-wrote it this way?”

No. She hand’t re-written anything, she hadn’t changed _a thing,_ and yet, her books had been rendered back to empty pages. The books she’d spent _years_ writing and crafting in such a way that Goh and her would have the happiest days of his life.

She’d been looking forward to those memories.

And she was _pissed_ they’d been taken away from her.

“So, it wasn’t you?” She double-checks.

Arceus says no. and Arceus doesn’t understand the concept of a lie. Chloe has no choice but to believe him, and return to Earth with a sullen mood, and more conflicting feelings than she’s ever experienced.

They are twelve human years and some months the day Goh skips school. It’s the same day Goh returns from ‘the greatest adventure of his life’, accompanied by a raven haired boy.

She recognizes him immediately, because his aura is every bit as mystical as her father said it would be.

Still, he’s a pretty quirky human, clumsy and loud and a lot of the things Chloe doesn’t appreciate about this particular race. But she can tell how her chosen best-friend is immediately smitten. How his blue eyes shine in a way she’d never even thought about before, when they speak of the adventures that await tomorrow.

Chloe chose Goh, because he used to talk about how Destiny was in his hands, how he would be the one to pave his own path. And Chloe thought, in her omniscience and hubris, that it meant he believed in Fate above all other things. In _her._ In the turns she’d already decided.

But she’d been wrong (Turns out you _can_ be wrong as a cosmical, all powerful being) and she had been so terribly, foolishly mistaken.

What Goh had meant was that _he_ would be the one calling the shots. That he would choose the life he wanted to lead. This other-boy, with brown eyes and really unruly hair - her dad shouldn’t be allowed to design humans - matched her beloved bone-by-bone. It was a hard admission, but an undeniable one.

Chloe was used to determining what happened in the world. She’d shared with them the wonders of art, science and fire, and allowed humans do what they will with them. She wrote stories of friendships and love, and let them play out for eternity.

But she was learning now, in her eternal wisdom, that certain things you couldn’t plan for. Certain things, although not meant to be, were inevitable.

Certain humans were defiant, had free-will, and, more surprisingly still, had the determination to craft futures so creative, not even the master with the golden font-pen could’ve thought about.

And though she wanted to scream and shout for Goh to come back to her, to stay with her, in the end, her compassion won over her characteristic impatience. At what moment, you may wonder? That she can tell you very well, for she remembers it perfectly.

It’s that first time they met, atop the back of the legendary Lugia, where they shook hands, and Goh’s smile grew kinder than Chloe had ever seen upon meeting this ‘chosen-one’. If someone could make Goh be that happy, they deserved to spend every last minute with him.

She looks back to this moment often, and thinks of the story that began writing itself that day, out of her reach, and entirely out of her control. The initial anger dissipates and become something akin to admiration, and later on to wonder. She looks back to this moment, and thinks the word soulmate was created precisely for people like this. Though in all her years of epic twin-flame stories, she's seen but a handful of bonds this strong. She doubts she'll ever see anything like it again.

It’s many human years later, when Chloe realizes her own father may have been a bit out of his depth when he created Ash, for he defies any and every idea of a human either of them ever thought of. And she’s the most amused when he summons her at odd times during twisted stories filled with danger to complain and demand she _stops them, they are putting themselves at risk, how are these humans so reckless -_

Chloe can only laugh in reply, helpless and useless, shrugging herself off the whole situation because, _I can’t control them any more than you can, Papa. They’re free._

Be it jumping head-first into danger, catching, training, or holding one another through the joys and sorrows of life, truly, there’s nothing Chloe can do. They’re free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what was this? we don't know. but it was fun. thank you for reading!


	4. Day 4: Holding Hands / “What we find in a soulmate is not something wild to tame, but something wild to run with.” Robert Brault

Ash rests his head to Goh’s shoulder, a sleepy murmur about being woken up when they reach their stop.

Goh looks out of the window and doesn’t reply, thinking instead of the vast scenery that moves too fast to be appreciated. He thinks of the warmth emanated by Ash’s body.

He thinks of the way they have been dancing around each other, these days. Blurring the lines between friendship and _more._ He thinks of how it’s been a long time coming, and yet, he’s strangely afraid of how fast it seems to be moving. He looks at the last six years, and try as he might, he can’t pinpoint _the moment._ He realizes it’s a cumulation of, rather than a single point in time.

Gazes linger a little longer. Smiles have a different candor to them, inside jokes feel more intimate all of a sudden. The mindless touches now have an added caress to them that is too careful, (too precious), to be an afterthought.

It’s something yet unnamed, but already in-bloom.

Goh thinks of Ash, how he dreams of adventure and greatness, how he takes in each day and makes it his own. He thinks of his fierceness, his drive and passion, and feels nothing but pride because, _how lucky is he, for he found someone this free._

But it’s that same freedom that scares him, makes him hesitate to take them further. Ash is meant to belong to the world. To be adored and applauded by thousands.

Goh is but one man. And he could never conceal all the wonder that is Ash to himself. It would be foolish, not to mention selfish.

If Ash were to find a partner, someone to join him in the adventure for the rest of his life, Goh hopes it would be someone who is as free as him, someone just as grand, kind, and worthy of accompanying this champion in his glory.

Goh has been so fortunate to have been part of the journey thus far. But if he’s the one who deserves to be with him for the years to come, he frankly doesn’t know. He doesn’t think so.

So he’s the one to look away first every time, and the one to hide his smile behind a hand. He bites his tongue every time a joke lands on queue, because he’s better than all his selfish desires. He’s only here for as long as it takes for Ash to find the person whom he wants to hold for good. Forever.

Ash belongs to _the world._ To _them._ Not to him.

As Goh thinks of this, and stubbornly fights his trembling hand to stay put, and not reach out the few centimeters that would take for it to be holding Ash’s, he’s pulled out of his head by tan, nimble fingers closing the distance themselves, taking his palm and twining both hands together.

There’s one squeeze to the hold, reassuring and _warm._

Goh turns with wide eyes, a million questions shining in them.

But Ash only smiles in response. And sleeps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's probably my fav so far. should definitely write a getting-together trope sometime soon 🤔


	5. Day 5: Future / “Some things are destined to be—it just takes us a couple of tries to get there.” - J.R. Ward, Lover Mine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one, too, is a mess. It’s also poorly inspired by the brilliant story by [volchitsae](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26252623)
> 
> I’ve re-read their fic several times because I adore it, and, even if HQ’s Sakuatsu is not one of your particular ships, I still strongly recommend it because the story is just so, so good and so sweet!

Fate is a bit of a bitch, if you ask Goh about it. He won’t tell you why - the technicalities are a bit too much for him to explain - but he’ll happily say to anyone who listens, that Fate is a bitch.

This is now the third lifetime he wakes up on in which his soulmate is nowhere to be found.

It’s nothing like the first time, when he didn’t even _know_ of the existence of this other being, when he ignored there was someone out there who was made to match him and accompany him through all of their lives’.

Ignorance really is bliss.

For centuries now, it’s taken but a couple of years for him and Ash to run into each other, sometimes they’re kids, sometimes they’re teenagers who go to the same school or farm the same fields or hunt the same witches (though _that one_ time Goh had been the witch himself, and Ash chasing after him with a pitchfork hadn’t been the most ideal of first encounters. Not really the stuff of romance, that.)

But no matter the circumstances, what is certain, over and over again, is that they will run into one another, for they are twin-flames, meant to love and hold together for eternity.

Which is why, as Goh wakes up as a ten year old in this new lifetime, with vague recollections of past lives and a distinct sense of _wrong,_ he’s got no-one to blame but Fate. He curses its very existence with the limited knowledge of mean-words a ten year old would have.

Ash isn’t here. Hasn’t been born, probably won’t be.

And now he has to burden however-many years on his own. Yearning and missing and _ugh_ , he can’t wait to die. What’s the average lifespan in this era? Seventy-what?

Ah, fuck him.

Even if he wanted to complain, it’s not like Fate has office hours, or an assistant with whom you can schedule an appointment. You get what you get and if you don’t like it, well,…tough, buddy, better luck next time.

Except it’s been _no luck_ for Goh for the last three lifetimes, and he’s starting to feel a bit like the butt of a joke.

He is _worried,_ because, what if something happened to Ash’s soul? What if it’s something serious and their reincarnation cycle is now broken and they won’t meet again? That is…that is the worst thing Goh can ever imagine happening and, if it were the case, he doesn’t really think he can keep going with this living business. He simply doesn’t want it.

And unless you, too, are part of a reincarnation cycle and have a soulmate of your own, please abstain from commenting on how extreme and dramatic that sounds. You simply don’t understand.

Twin-flames must meet on every lifetime. Otherwise the whole thing just feels…off. As if you shouldn’t be there in the first place. As if you shouldn’t exist at all. it’s taxing for one’s soul. It’s definitely taken a toll on Goh’s, who wakes now for the third time and meets the heartbreaking realization that his one and only person isn’t here.

Again.

But Goh is a determined - (read: stubborn) soul. And he refuses to let another lifetime pass him by without his partner. That’s unacceptable.

Fate might not have office hours. But he’s paying a visit anyways.

It’s several years before he can make good on that decision. As he learns the ins-and-outs of humanity this time around, as he grows, becomes a someone in this lifetime (he chooses science, because Ash had been a chemist in a past life, and he feels as though that is a respectable homage to his lover. He thinks he’d be pleased.)

There are creatures in this world other than humans or regular animals. They’re called Pokémon, he’s learned. They live alongside humanity and societies. Goh has a companion of his own, a fire-hare that has been with him since he was a child. Cinderace has heard all about Ash and their bond and how important it is to find him.

And so, when he’s twenty, Goh and Cinderace set on a journey to where he’s heard the goddess of Destiny lives. It’s the closest thing to ‘Fate’ he’s found. It’s months on the road, but Goh is not giving up. The life he leads, the future he wants, it’s up to him to make it happen. It’s up to him to get Ash back.

It’s late May by the time he arrives. He lights his candles and says his customary prayers and, when he’s the only patron left at the shrine, he lays it down on Fate as he’s wanted to do for _ages._

_Listen to me, your ‘highness’. I think it’s very messed up how you gave me a soulmate, and then decided to simply take them away. That’s not how this works and you bloody-well know it. I swear, if you don’t bring Ash back -_

Goh doesn’t actually remember how Ash left the Earth last time they were together. He doesn’t remember who left first, or the events that led up to it.

It’s been a minute ( _three lifetimes)._ And it’s not the kind of thing they remember every time anyways. Some stuff comes back stronger when they meet, but that hasn’t happened in a minute ( _three-fucking-lifetimes)_ , either.

Fate is kind enough - cruel enough - to show him exactly what happened, last time. It shows him the King, angry and vengeful, ordering his guards to attack him, get him away from the young prince.

The young prince, who jumps in front of Goh to protect him. Who takes the arrow to the heart. The young prince, with whom Goh had been meeting in secret for the last several years, in love and forbidden.

The young prince. His Ash. Who’s just sacrificed himself for Goh.

Goh, who spent a lifetime of tortures for his sins. All of them meaningless and painless, for his life had disappeared in front of him and there was nothing he could do.

Goh remembers now. Goh remembers and cries and begs to understand what it all means. Why isn’t Ash back now. Why hasn’t he been back in so long.

He gets no response. Fate’s done listening to him. Fate’s closed its gates to the past. Fate invites Goh to look into the future with some more hope.

Goh doesn’t know what to do with that, either. But he extends his gratitudes and leaves with Cinderace by his side. More confused than he’d been upon arrival. The feeling of dread towards yet-another-lifetime without his soulmate never leaving him.

It’s four years after that, on a day Goh is moving around his new lab and organizing the last of the boxes, that he’s hit in the gut by what can only be defined as _power._ A surge of energy that shakes him to the core and has him tumbling to the ground instantly.

Cinderace rushes to him, worried and startled. And, as Goh gapes for a reassurance, he feels it _again._

His eyes fill with tears as he looks forward. Sure enough, right at the entrance of the lab is the figure of the person that was crafted just for him.

He can’t see much from the tears. But he can _feel._ And that’s enough.

Ash rushes to his side, unannounced and somewhat clumsy. Instead of helping Goh stand, he comes down to the floor with him, hands holding onto Goh’s face, meeting his crying blue eyes with shinning brown ones.

“Shh, I’m here now. I’m here. Goh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I’m here. I’m not leaving anymore.”

It’s a litany of assurances for the next several minutes. Of I missed you’s and I love you’s and I’m sorry’s. Of you idiot’s and don’t ever leave again’s and have-you-got-any-idea-of-how-long-it-has-been’s. Of Ash explaining how his soul had been healing. How he didn’t understand what had happened, and the last thing he remembers is jumping in front of some guard to keep Goh safe.

It doesn’t matter. None of it matters, decides Goh. Because he is finally, _finally_ holding Ash back in his arms. And it’s been too long for comfort since that’s happened. He’s not wasting a second more.

They can figure out who Ash is in this life later. Together. They can look into finding him a Pokémon companion later. Together. They can make plans for the future and make plans for the night and make love in Goh’s bedroom. Together.

_What’s the average lifespan in this era? Seventy-what?_

_Goh can’t wait._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved the reincarnation argument and the multiple lifetimes trope so yeah,,, I tried to run with it. Does it stick to the prompt? Probably not at all! But oh-well!


	6. Day 6: Kiss / "When you lose your heart to someone who can shine, you won’t be able to tell whether it’s love that blinds you or whether he is the light source himself"-易修罗

The first time Ash sees Goh’s aura, he freaks out for a moment, having almost forgotten this was an ability he possessed.

They’re at Cerise Park, it’s a normal Tuesday and they’re feeding the Pokémon, and when Ash turns to Goh to ask him if he’s given the water-types their share, his eyes widen at the sudden _light_ surrounding his friend.

It’s so bright is blinding. And Ash can’t understand why Goh isn’t freaking out. Why are the Pokémon not freaking out. Why is Goh the one asking him if he’s all right, as he drops the food tray to the ground.

Then Pikachu stands next to Goh, equally worried expression on its face. Ash sees the blue hues around him, hints of yellow that denote his nature. And Ash remembers.

Ash understands.

Though it remains unsolved why Goh’s aura is bright as the sun, when everyone else’s is this or that color. When everyone else’s is tame.

He’s all right, he tells Goh. Let’s go feed the water-types. Goh smiles at him, in that funny way that makes Ash’s heart feel warm for some reason.

The second time Ash sees Goh’s aura, they’re in the middle of one of Team Rocket’s disasters, and Goh is a second away from jumping after the machine that’s kidnapped their Pokémon.

It’s the least convenient of moments to be blinded by white _light,_ when he’s supposed to be holding Goh back from doing something stupid. As he squints his eyes to work around the brightness, he realizes he’s already too late.

Goh has jumped. He’s holding onto the gigantic robot for dear life, and from within, Cinderace obeys his orders to attack until the machine gives-up. Until it breaks and everyone is free.

It’s so dangerous. That was so stupid. You could have died. What were you thinking.

It’s still painfully bright around Goh, and he scolds him as they walk away from the scene, brow furrowed in distress and angry-worry.

Goh listens patiently. Eventually halts their walk, holds two fingers to Ash’s lips and, with eyes a deeper blue than the skies above them says, crisp and sincere, _you would have done the same._

Ash falls in love.

The third time Ash sees Goh’s aura, it’s almost hard to discern, because everything that day is _bright._ Shines with a light of its own.

It’d be driving Ash up the walls, if he weren’t so preoccupied already.

Goh still shines the brightest, of course. Goh still rises above anything and everything Ash has ever seen. And as he walks, and meets the eyes of the person he loves the most, Ash realizes this is the brightest his aura has been. clear and calm and peaceful.

Like coming home.

That sounds about right.

Goh smiles and the brightness tames a bit. Ash wonders why that is. Goh smiles and holds his hand and slips a ring on his fourth-finger, promising Ash a lifetime of love and adventures. The light dims again, just a little. Caught up in the moment, Ash doesn’t get to wonder about the brightness much further.

Hours later, as they slow dance to the music, Goh meets his eyes and kisses him, full of warmth, and more in love that he believed he could ever be. _You shine so bright._ He says, straight into Ash’s lips.

They’re wrapped in light. And Ash can no longer tell if it’s coming from the fairy-bulbs around them. Or if it’s Goh’s aura. Or - apparently - his own.

It doesn’t matter, he decides, as he pulls his husband in by the waist, savoring his laughter as they kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> married satogou is good for the soul


	7. Day 7: Confession / ‘With the whole world crumbling, we pick this time to fall in love.'-lisa, Casablanca

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> strongly recommend John Mayer's 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' for this one. it's what i listened to while writing it, at least.

The kiss tastes like salt. Like the sweat that shines on both of their faces. It’s forceful, because they’re high on adrenaline. But also because there is no other pace around them. Everything is moving fast. Hard. Everyone is running.

In fear, towards safety. Towards danger, in a hero strike.

They’re the latter (They’re always the latter. Never learned to be anything but).

Ash grabs his hand and _pulls,_ and for a moment Goh thinks something large is about to crash right next to him. That he’s being pulled away from imminent death.

He isn’t. He’s just being kissed. By the only person in the world he’s ever wanted to be kissed by.

He feels like he might die anyways, with the way his heart forgets to beat and his lungs seem to melt.

He puts his hands around Ash’s face to hold him there. To deepen the kiss. To deafen the sounds of attacks and explosions around them.

Foreheads press together when it’s over, and in the few centimeters that separate their mouths, in the puffs of tired air that leave them, Ash says the words Goh has been waiting for since forever.

“I love you.” He breathes, his voice crisp through all the noise. A murmur. “I love you. Please come back to me."

“Ash - ” I love you, too. I love you. I love you.

He’s leaning back now. As Pikachu jumps on his shoulder and Cinderace comes back to Goh’s side. The moment disappears and, in the midst of all this chaos, it’s hard to believe it even happened at all.

Goh begins to question if it happened at all.

“I know.” Nods Ash. A confirmation. And a promise.

And everything Goh always dreamed of. Sans the apocalyptic scenery around them.

Ash leaves then. Goh should be leaving as well. They’re expected. They’re heroes. They’re always about to _fucking die._

Such is the future they forged for themselves. The turns they have made. The fates they decided.

It all led here anyways. To the ending of the world as they know it.

To the beginning of something yet to be named, but that is his - _theirs -_ to cherish and protect.

Goh watches a building crumble before his eyes, and allows himself half a second to imagine a next-kiss, just in case he doesn't make it back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you, thank you, thank you for reading. did you have a favorite? mines were probably days 4 and 7, though i had a blast writing them all.
> 
> be safe, i love ya x


End file.
